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{{Multiple issues|{{Disputed|date=November 2023}}
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{{Original research|date=November 2023}}}}


The '''Llaguno Overpass''' ('''''Puente Llaguno''''' in Spanish), also known as the '''Llaguno Bridge''', is a bridge in central [[Caracas]], [[Venezuela]], near the [[Miraflores Palace]], made infamous by the events of 11 April 2002, when a shootout took place between the {{ill|Caracas Metropolitan Police|es|Policía Metropolitana de Caracas}} and the pro-government [[Bolivarian Circles]], also known as '''El Silencio Massacre''', causing 19 deaths and 127 injured people. The events preceded the [[2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt|2002 Venezuelan coup attempt]]. President Chávez was later arrested by the military.<ref name="Ref_2008">{{cite web|date=2 January 2008|title=Esposa de Gebauer espera publicación en Gaceta de Ley de Amnistía|url=http://politica.eluniversal.com/2008/01/02/pol_ava_esposa-de-gebauer-es_02A1282403.shtml|access-date=31 January 2010|work=[[El Universal (Caracas)|El Universal]]|language=es|quote=Otto Gebauer fue imputado por el delito de insubordinación y privación ilegítima de libertad al coronel Hugo Chávez Frías,}}</ref><ref name="Ref_2006">{{cite web|date=15 March 2006|title=Veneconomía|url=http://www.veneconomy.com/site/files/articulos/artEsp3586_2470.pdf|access-date=29 January 2010|language=es}}</ref><ref name="Ref_">Rey, J. C. (2002), [http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/juan_carlos_rey/insolito_golpe.asp "Consideraciones políticas sobre un insólito golpe de Estado"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103201015/http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/juan_carlos_rey/insolito_golpe.asp|date=3 January 2009}}, pp. 1–16; cited in Cannon (2004:296); "In 2002, Venezuela's military and some of its business leaders ousted President Chavez from power and held him hostage." (N. Scott Cole (2007), "Hugo Chavez and President Bush's credibility gap: The struggle against US democracy promotion", ''International Political Science Review'', 28(4), p498)</ref> Chávez's request for asylum in Cuba was denied, and he was ordered to be tried in a Venezuelan court.<ref name="Bellos2">{{cite web|last1=Bellos|first1=Alex|title=Chavez rises from very peculiar coup|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/15/venezuela.alexbellos|access-date=8 February 2015|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=15 April 2002}}</ref>
The '''Llaguno Overpass''' ('''''Puente Llaguno''''' in Spanish), also known as the '''Llaguno Bridge''', is a bridge in central [[Caracas]], [[Venezuela]], near the [[Miraflores Palace]], made infamous by the events of 11 April 2002, when a shootout took place between the {{ill|Caracas Metropolitan Police|es|Policía Metropolitana de Caracas}} and the pro-government [[Bolivarian Circles]], also known as '''El Silencio Massacre''', causing 19 deaths and 127 injured people. The events preceded the [[2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt|2002 Venezuelan coup attempt]]. President Chávez was later arrested by the military.<ref name="Ref_2008">{{cite web|date=2 January 2008|title=Esposa de Gebauer espera publicación en Gaceta de Ley de Amnistía|url=http://politica.eluniversal.com/2008/01/02/pol_ava_esposa-de-gebauer-es_02A1282403.shtml|access-date=31 January 2010|work=[[El Universal (Caracas)|El Universal]]|language=es|quote=Otto Gebauer fue imputado por el delito de insubordinación y privación ilegítima de libertad al coronel Hugo Chávez Frías,}}</ref><ref name="Ref_2006">{{cite web|date=15 March 2006|title=Veneconomía|url=http://www.veneconomy.com/site/files/articulos/artEsp3586_2470.pdf|access-date=29 January 2010|language=es}}</ref><ref name="Ref_">Rey, J. C. (2002), [http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/juan_carlos_rey/insolito_golpe.asp "Consideraciones políticas sobre un insólito golpe de Estado"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103201015/http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/juan_carlos_rey/insolito_golpe.asp|date=3 January 2009}}, pp. 1–16; cited in Cannon (2004:296); "In 2002, Venezuela's military and some of its business leaders ousted President Chavez from power and held him hostage." (N. Scott Cole (2007), "Hugo Chavez and President Bush's credibility gap: The struggle against US democracy promotion", ''International Political Science Review'', 28(4), p498)</ref> Chávez's request for asylum in Cuba was denied, and he was ordered to be tried in a Venezuelan court.<ref name="Bellos2">{{cite web|last1=Bellos|first1=Alex|title=Chavez rises from very peculiar coup|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/15/venezuela.alexbellos|access-date=8 February 2015|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=15 April 2002}}</ref>

Revision as of 16:26, 25 November 2023

Llaguno Overpass events
View from the Llaguno Overpass down to Baralt Avenue.
Lead figures

 • Pro-government demonstrators  • National Guard  • Bolivarian Circles

 • Anti-government demonstrators  • Metropolitan Police

Casualties and losses
19 dead
127 injured

The Llaguno Overpass (Puente Llaguno in Spanish), also known as the Llaguno Bridge, is a bridge in central Caracas, Venezuela, near the Miraflores Palace, made infamous by the events of 11 April 2002, when a shootout took place between the Caracas Metropolitan Police [es] and the pro-government Bolivarian Circles, also known as El Silencio Massacre, causing 19 deaths and 127 injured people. The events preceded the 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt. President Chávez was later arrested by the military.[1][2][3] Chávez's request for asylum in Cuba was denied, and he was ordered to be tried in a Venezuelan court.[4]

Background

11 April march

The crisis came when "workers and business leaders," infuriated by Chávez's "meddling in the state oil company," as the Chicago Tribune put it, joined in "calling for a general strike that cut exports" in support of striking oil workers.[5] The strike began, according to The Washington Post, "as a managerial protest at the state-run oil company, but evolved into a broad effort supported by the country's largest business and labor groups to force Chávez from power."[6]

On 11 April, hundreds of thousands to millions of Venezuelans marched to the PDVSA headquarters later that day to protest against the recent dismissal of the management board.[7][8] Once at the headquarters, those present at the rally began to chant "To Miraflores! To Miraflores! To Miraflores!", in reference to the Miraflores Presidential Palace.[9][10] In response, Carlos Ortega declared: "This human river is now going to Miraflores to ask for your resignation", referring to Chávez.[10] The National Guard would later counter the concentration in Chuao and, equipped with firearms, would confront the demonstrators in the vicinity of the Miraflores Palace.[11][12]

Shootout

By 12:30 pm, thousands of government supporters were gathered around the palace blocking all routes to Miraflores except for the Llaguno Overpass, which was where the Bolivarian Circles had gathered to overlook the route.[13]

Since other routes were blocked by the National Guard, many marchers began to head down Baralt Avenue in order to reach Miraflores.[14] On Baralt Avenue, near the Llaguno Overpass as the march inched closer hundreds of Chávez supporters gathered and began throwing large rocks, Molotov cocktails and even tear gas at the demonstrators.[14][15][16] As marchers and Chavistas clashed, the Metropolitan Police attempted to separate both sides from further confrontation with two trucks with water cannons.[14][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss]

A few minutes after Chávez's broadcast at 3:45 pm, gunfire erupted again and the march began to disperse slightly.[17][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss] Police and Chavista supporters exchanged gunfire and the marchers fled shortly after as the violence grew.[17][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss] According to medical staff at the Vargas Hospital, the first to arrive at the hospital were opposition marchers.[18][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss] According to surgeons, the marchers had been shot in the back with handgun fire while fleeing and others were severely injured from 7.62×51mm NATO military rounds from Fal rifles, standard equipment of the National Guard defending Chávez.[18][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss] Later after police responded to pro-Chávez shooting, Chávez supporters then began being seen injured in the hospitals.[18][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss] As a result of the confrontations, 19 were left dead,[19] most killed between 3:20 pm and 3:55 pm, and over 150 injured.[20][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss] A vehicle used by the Metropolitan Police later showed that approximately 600 bullets impacted the vehicle's side that was facing north toward the Puente Llaguno bridge according to El Universal.[21][better source needed][undue weight? – discuss]

President Chávez was subsequently arrested by the military.[22][23][24] Chávez's request for asylum in Cuba was denied, and he was ordered to be tried in a Venezuelan court.[25]

Responsibility

The majority of the violence that took place on 11 April 2002 was near the Llaguno Overpass. There is no consensus as to who was responsible for the deaths on that day, and this remains a very controversial issue. The opposition version of events puts the blame on Chávez, or at least on his supporters. Many groups of the Bolivarian Circles gathered near the Llaguno Overpass before the march reached the area.[26] A Venevisión camera positioned on a rooftop that afternoon captured images of people using handguns to shoot from the pro-Chávez counter-march being held on the Llaguno Overpass, an overpass that crosses one of central Caracas's busiest avenues. A number of high-ranking military officers, led by Vice Admiral Héctor Ramírez, recorded a video message broadcast later in the day that held Chávez responsible for massacring innocent people using snipers, referring to at least six dead and dozens wounded. CNN correspondent Otto Neustald Neustald reported that the message was recorded at least two hours before the killings started. However, this claim has never been proven and is contested by other reporters present, such as Javier Ignacio Mayorca, Mayela León and Adrián Criscaut, who affirmed that the military officers were informed of the death of Tortoza during the filming of the message.[27]

Several witnesses reported seeing people shooting from two specific locations: the Ausonia Hotel and the Eden Hotel. The head of the Casa Militar at the time, the guard of the president of Venezuela, Colonel Almidien Ramon Moreno Acosta, states in a report presented on May 15, 2002 before the National Assembly that ten suspects were detained on April 11 under the accusation of being snipers. Three of them were captured by a group of unidentified citizens and handed over to Casa Militar. There were no reports as to whether any firearms were seized from them. The remaining seven were captured directly by officers of the Guardia de Honor, the Casa Militar.[28]

The seven individuals were fully identified because they had registered with their real names at the Ausonia Hotel. Only one of them was carrying an unfired .38 caliber weapon. On April 12 they were handed over to the Prosecutor's Office and tried in court, but were released because there was insufficient evidence to charge them. The revolver had not been fired and no traces were found on any part of the detainees' bodies or clothing.[28]

The La Nacional building housed the offices of pro-Chávez mayor Freddy Bernal.[29] Bernal, a Chávez supporter and former leader of an elite police force, was accused by a Venezuelan military officer of complying with orders from the Defense Ministry to shoot opposition demonstrators.[29] It was also reported that the National Guard, which was firing tear gas and combatting the opposition protesters, did not pay any attention to the gunmen on the La Nacional building and that it was the Metropolitan Police who had attempted to go to the building.[30] Bernal dismissed the allegations as "totally false".[29]

The 2003 documentary titled The Revolution Will Not Be Televised contradicts claims by private media in Venezuela that the pro-Chávez group was firing on the opposition protest from Llaguno Bridge. In the documentary, footage captured from another angle by an amateur cameraman shows pro-Chávez gunmen firing over an empty street with no apparent opposition protesters below. Further, the film makers claim that the opposition march never went down that street. While this documentary has been criticized by another called X-Ray of a Lie and American academic Brian Nelson, who argue that the footage is manipulated and obscures Metropolitan Police on the street below,[31][self-published source] it's not clear whether this is relevant to the veracity of the claim that pro-Chávez gunmen were not firing on opposition protesters from the bridge.

The 2004 documentary Puente Llaguno: Claves de una Masacre claimed that the Chavistas on the bridge did not begin shooting until 4:38 pm, by which time most of the opposition deaths had already occurred. Nelson responds that such claims are false by showing that opposition demonstrator Jesús Arellano was killed just before 2:30 pm, with photos showing Chavistas further up the street brandishing firearms and closer than purported by the earlier sources.[31][self-published source]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Esposa de Gebauer espera publicación en Gaceta de Ley de Amnistía". El Universal (in Spanish). 2 January 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2010. Otto Gebauer fue imputado por el delito de insubordinación y privación ilegítima de libertad al coronel Hugo Chávez Frías,
  2. ^ "Veneconomía" (PDF) (in Spanish). 15 March 2006. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  3. ^ Rey, J. C. (2002), "Consideraciones políticas sobre un insólito golpe de Estado" Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 1–16; cited in Cannon (2004:296); "In 2002, Venezuela's military and some of its business leaders ousted President Chavez from power and held him hostage." (N. Scott Cole (2007), "Hugo Chavez and President Bush's credibility gap: The struggle against US democracy promotion", International Political Science Review, 28(4), p498)
  4. ^ Bellos, Alex (15 April 2002). "Chavez rises from very peculiar coup". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  5. ^ Chicago Tribune, April 16, 2002, Tuesday, Military played crucial roles in Chavez's ouster, return, BYLINE: By Patrice M. Jones, Tribune Foreign Correspondent, SECTION: NEWS; ZONE: N; Pg. 3
  6. ^ The Washington Post, April 13, 2002 Saturday, Leader of Venezuela Is Forced To Resign; Ex-Oil Executive Takes Office as Interim President, BYLINE: Scott Wilson, Washington Post Foreign Service, SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
  7. ^ Hawkins, Kirk A. (2010). Venezuela's Chavismo and populism in comparative perspective (1st publ. ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521765039.
  8. ^ Newsweek, 29 April 2002, Hugo's Close Call
  9. ^ Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 13. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  10. ^ a b Molina, Alfonso (2012). 2002 El año que vivimos en la calle Conversaciones con Carlos Ortega (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Libros marcados. pp. 64, 69, 81. ISBN 978-980-408-017-3.
  11. ^ "Fotografías de Abril de 2002: de la marcha al golpe // @Orinoquiaphoto en #ImagoMundi". Prodavinci (in Spanish). 11 April 2016. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  12. ^ Los Angeles Times, 21 April 2002 Sunday, "He's In, He's Out, He's In", BYLINE: SANDRA HERNANDEZ, SECTION: OPINION; Part M; p. 1
  13. ^ Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 23–25. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  14. ^ a b c Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 29–32. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  15. ^ Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  16. ^ Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 34. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  17. ^ a b Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 41–44. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  18. ^ a b c Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 103–106. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  19. ^ The Washington Times, 25 April 2002, Thursday, Final Edition, "The fall and rise of Hugo Chavez", SECTION: EDITORIALS; p. A18
  20. ^ Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 1–8. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  21. ^ "LOS POLICÍAS SENTENCIADOS". El Universal. 7 April 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  22. ^ "Esposa de Gebauer espera publicación en Gaceta de Ley de Amnistía". El Universal (in Spanish). 2 January 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2010. Otto Gebauer fue imputado por el delito de insubordinación y privación ilegítima de libertad al coronel Hugo Chávez Frías,
  23. ^ "Veneconomía" (PDF) (in Spanish). 15 March 2006. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  24. ^ Rey, J. C. (2002), "Consideraciones políticas sobre un insólito golpe de Estado" Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 1–16; cited in Cannon (2004:296); "In 2002, Venezuela's military and some of its business leaders ousted President Chavez from power and held him hostage." (N. Scott Cole (2007), "Hugo Chavez and President Bush's credibility gap: The struggle against US democracy promotion", International Political Science Review, 28(4), p498)
  25. ^ Bellos, Alex (15 April 2002). "Chavez rises from very peculiar coup". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  26. ^ Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 23. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  27. ^ Meza, Alfredo; Lafuente, Sandra (2012). El acertijo de abril (in Spanish). La Hoja del Norte. ISBN 978-980-7212-14-4.
  28. ^ a b "Puente Llaguno: Cinco policías venezolanos están aún tras las rejas". Diario Las Américas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  29. ^ a b c Rohter, Larry (25 June 2010). "Oliver Stone's Latin America". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  30. ^ Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 59. ISBN 978-1568584188.
  31. ^ a b Nelson, Brian Andrew. "A PHOTOGRAPHIC CHRONOLOGY OF THE VIOLENCE ON BARALT AVENUE". BrianAndrewNelson.com. Retrieved 12 August 2015.


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